Decoupage
by Elementary Magpie
Summary: Third in a series of vignettes on the theme, "When you only have four senses, you make the most of them." Season 1 between "Sketchy" and "Ain't No Sunshine."


Disclaimer: Nothing to see here, captain. These are not the copyright infringers you are looking for. Move along.

Author's Note: Third vignette in a series on the theme "When you only have four senses, you make the most of them." Season 1, between "Sketchy" and "Ain't No Sunshine." Many thanks to everyone who encouraged me to do another!

**Decoupage**

"Let's get back to decoupage," said Audrey, as the bakery door banged shut behind them. They'd taken advantage of a slow morning at the station and the cool, sunny day to walk the four blocks down to Rosemary's. Now they were emerging back onto the sidewalk, laden with coffee and crullers.

"Why?" asked Nathan, lengthening his stride.

But Audrey just cheerfully half-jogged to catch up, not even breathing hard. "Slow down, you'll make me spill my coffee."

Nathan slowed, but he didn't give her anything else.

"I have questions," she continued, with far too much relish.

"There are websites."

"Really? But not about you, unless you've got a secret identity. So talk: You paste these pictures onto…what?"

"Boxes, furniture," he gave in, hoping that if she stayed focused on the mechanics, she wouldn't remember to ask him why. He didn't want to get her onto the topic of the Portland specialist, or the advice about maintaining the fine motor skills in his nerveless hands.

"You know, I think I've seen stuff like this. Cutesy. What kinds of cute pictures do you use? Puppies? Kittens?" Her grin suddenly got wider and her voice squeaked a little in triumph. "Babies? I'll bet you've done babies."

"Mary asked me to make Steph Willis a christening present," he said defensively. "I've never done kittens."

They had to pause at the curb to let a couple of cars go by, but she wasn't distracted.

"OK, what then? Vintage trucks? Other tough guy subjects?" Even her voice was grinning as they walked on.

"Not like that. Collages."

"What? You mean like tissue paper and macaroni in kindergarten?"

"No," he said, goaded into sharing. "You get pieces of pictures, in colors you like, and you arrange them to make an image of something else."

On his last project, he had found himself just collecting colors without any image in mind. First blues - pale blue, sky blue, indigo, slate - then peaches and pink roses, then honey and caramel and cream.

"Wouldn't paint-by-numbers be a lot less work?"

"Interesting tour of your childhood art world, Parker. Let's talk about that, instead."

"Not when this tour of your brain is so much more fun. Next stop?"

It had taken a long time to figure out what image he could make from that collection of hues. Days and days, instead of the expected evening.

Some tourists coming out of Larissa's stopped them to ask for directions to the Moose Farm, and with all of the "Then turn right on Carver" and "Enjoy your vacation, folks," he figured he was pretty much off the hook.

No such luck. "So, what do you do with these things once you've finished them? If I went to your house, would it be, like, The Museum of Decoupage Collage?"

Trying to ignore the sudden flip-flop in his stomach at the thought of Audrey in his house, he shared a bit too much. "No, I sell them."

"Sell them? Where?"

"At craft fairs, mostly."

She began to laugh, and almost walked into a fire hydrant. "Nathan Wournos at craft fairs? This is great. Do you have a booth, and a little table, and a sign? Please tell me you have pictures of this."

"No, I don't have a booth," he snapped. "Mary sells them on commission. Anonymously. Which she does for lots of customers."

"Uh huh," Audrey looked like she was about to close a case. "And you think the whole town doesn't actually know who her "anonymous" suppliers are?"

That was a sickening thought.

"What does the Chief say about this hobby of yours?"

"Nothing."

"Really? I can't believe he doesn't know what you've been doing."

"I think he's saving it up," Nathan said grimly. "Oh, too bad, here's the station. Time to get back to work."

Audrey turned on the step above him and gave him her widest, most gleeful smile. The sun lit up the irises of her eyes, gleamed along the strands of hair escaping from her ponytail, and set the curve of her cheek aglow.

When the image he'd finally found in that last collection of colors had turned out to be a woman's face, he'd thrown the entire project into the trash, feeling uncomfortably like a stalker.

"You're off the hook for now, Wournos," said Audrey. "But I am not yet finished with decoupage."

Nathan was sure that she wasn't. But he thought that maybe he was.

- end -


End file.
